2005
Goldsmith the Dramatist
This year’s theme is , and will examine Goldsmiths contribution to drama through his two well known plays, “the Good natured Man” and particularly, “She Stoops to Conquer”
Goldsmith’s social comedy has gathered remarkably little dust over more than two centuries. Its dramatic impact is still immediate, and its central preoccupation with class has not lost any of its bite. Any expectation of fossilised 18th-century drama is dispelled by the freshness of the writing. Proof of Goldsmith’s lasting legacy is the fact that it remains today one of the few 18th century plays to be regularly performed for modern audiences.
Friday June 3rd
Rustic Inn, Abbeyshrule
Chair: Dave O’Connell
8:30 p.m. Offical Opening by Sen. Martin Mansergh
9:00 p.m. Keynotes address by Prof. Andrew Carpenter
In this lecture, Professor Carpenter will consider the verse that surrounded Oliver Goldsmith when he was a child in Co. Westmeath, making particular reference to the anonmous verse of the age, from the lighter verse of Jonathan Swift, to the work of the henry Brooke , and above all tothe Westmeath poet laurence Whyte, one of the finest and least- known poets of the age. Whyte’s long poem The Partying Cup gives a vivid picture of the life of a substantial farmer in Westmeath at the time of Goldsmith’s youth.
Saturday June 4th
11:30 Goldsmith Literary Tour
Tour of goldsmith Sites including readings form his works and form local writers
Begins at Goldsmith’s Statue in Ballymahon. Sites to be visited include Pallas, Forgney, The Three Jolly Pigeons, the Busy Mill, the Parsonage, Kilkenny West, the Hawthorn Bush and the Schoolhouse.
2:00 Tour Ends-
Time for Lunch , Bog Lane Threatre, Ballymahon
Chair: jimmy Lennon (Principle, Mercy Secondary School)
3:00 A talk by Tom McIntyre
4:00 A discussion by Nigel Wood on “Sentimental and Unsentimental Goldsmith”
The common critical view is that Goldsmith was deeply distrustful of Sentimental attitudes. In “She stoops to Conquer”, the emotionally stunted Marlow is hardly endorsed; we are likewise encouraged to support the perspectives of the Vicar of Wakerfield and Will Honeycombe- but only up to a point. Goldsmith perhaps produced the most consistent perspectives on himself in his synotic poem, “The Traveller” that introduces several complex nuances ablut his own views and anglo-irish identity. This lecture will attempt to illustate this duality, with a close focus on the work of the 1760s up to 1773.
9:00 p.m. Ballymahon Vocational School
Chair: Niall Nally
- Poetry Reading by Paul Durcan
Sunday June 5th
3:30 Pallas, Abbeyshrule
Chair: Anne Collins
- Poetry Reading by children from schools in Goldsmith Country.
- Presentation of Prizes in Children’s Poetry Competition by Pauline Devine.
- readings of winning entries
Musical Interlude- Joe’s Cheese and Wine
- Presentation of Prizes in Goldsmith Summerschool
- Poetry Competition by Noel Monahan
- Readings of winning entries
- Poetry Reading by Noel Monahan
Dr. Martin Mansergh was born in England in 1946 and was educated at Oxford. Former head of Reasearch with Fianna Fail and principal advisor on Northern Ireland to three Taoisigh. Responsible for dialogue with Sinn Fein and Loyalist leaderships, prior to first and second IRA ceasefires. Closely involved in the good Friday Aggrement negotiations, and in talks since on police reform and putting arms beyond use. Winner with Fr. Reid and Rev. Roy Magee of Tipperary Peace Prize. Currently sits o nthe Agricultureal Panel in seanad Eireann.
Prof. Andrew Carpenter
Prof. Andrew Carpenter was educated at Oxford and UCD. Employed in UCD since 1998. He was founding president of the Eighteenth Century Ireland Society and founding editor of its journal Eighteenth- Century ireland. He has a long association with scholarly publishing through his series of ten voumes of Irish Texts from the Age of Swift and through the publication of various scholary texts and anthologies over the last thirty years. His anthology of Verse in English from Eighteenth English form Tudor and Stuart Ireland, was published in September 2003. Over the years, Andrew Carpenter has lectured in many universities in Ireland, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Austria and has delivered papers at conferences in many countries. He is currently working on an edition of two satiric poems from seventheenth-century Ireland, the Pugatorium Hibernicum and the Fingallian.
Tom McIntyre
Tom Mac Intyre was born in Cavan in 1931. A dual- language writer, he has written six books of poetry as well as many plays for the Abbey Theatre (Peacock Stage). These include the Great hunger(1983-6), which toured internationally; Good Evening, Mr Collins (1997), Caoineadh Airt Ui Laoghaire (1998); and his version of Cuirt An Mhean oiche/ The Midnight Court (1999). Amongst his short fiction is The Harper’s turn (with an introduction by Seamus Heaney, Oldcastle, Co Meath, Yhe Gallery Press,1982); and The World for Yes, New and Selected Stroies (The Galllery Press,1991). His poetry collections include Fleur-du-Lit (Dublin, The Dedalus Press,1994); and Stories of the Wandering Mahn (Dublin, The Lilliput press, 2000). he is a member of Aosdana and lives in Co. Cavan.
Nigel Wood
Nigel Wood is Professor of Literature and head of Dept. of English and Drama at Loughborough University. His specialist areas of research are eighteenth-century literature, the staging of dramatic texts and the application of litrary and cultural theories to texts. Current work is on an edition of Four Eighteenth-Century Comedies( Feilding’s The Modern husband, Garrick and Coleman’s The clandestine Marriage, Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer and O’Keeff’s Wild Oats) for Oxford University Press and of The Beggar’s opera for broadview Press.
Paul Durcan
Paul Durcan was born in Dublin in 1944 and studied at University College Cork. His first solo collection of poetry, O Westport in the Light of Asia Minor, won the Patrick Kavangh Award in 1975; later collections include Teresa’s Bar (1976), Sam’s Cross (1978), Ark of the North (1982), Jesus, Break his fall (1983), and Going Home to Russia (1987). The Berlin Wall Cafe (1985) was a choice of the London Poetry Book Society , and Daddy, Daddy (1990) won the Whitbread Poetry Prize. More recently he published Give Me your Hand (1994), Christmas Day (1996), Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil (1999), and Cries of an Irish Caveman (2001). In 1989, he recieved the Irish- Amerian Cultural Institute Poetry Award, and in 1990 was writer-in- residence at Trinity College, Dublin. he lives in Dublin.
Noel Monahan
Noel Monahan has won several awards for his work. In 2001, he won the prestigious Sea Cat national peotry Award, organised by Poetry Ireland. Also in 2001, he won the RTE , P.J. O’Connor Award, for his play, Broken Cups. Other awards include the Allingham Poetry Award and The kilkenny Prize for Poetry. The Funeral Game is Noel Monahan’s fourth collection of poetry. Opposite Walls was published in 1991, Snowfire in 1995, and Curse of The Birds in 2001, all published by Salmon Publishing.